THE FIFTH PRECEPT: DIET FOR A MINDFUL SOCIETY

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to
cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my
family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and
consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being
and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body
and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use
alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that
contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films
and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my
consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my
parents, my society and future generations. I will work to transform
violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by
practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a
proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the
transformation of society.

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good
health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by
practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I vow to ingest only items
that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and
in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am
determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or
other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books,
films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness
with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and
future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and
confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for
society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and
for the transformation of society.

Whenever we take a bath or a shower, we can look at our body and see that it is
a gift from our parents and their parents. Even though many of us do not want
to have much to do with our parents--they may have hurt us so much--when we
look deeply, we see that we cannot drop all identification with them. As we
wash each part of our body, we can ask ourselves, "To whom does this body
belong? Who has transmitted this body to me? What has been transmitted?"
Meditating this way, we will discover that there are three components: the
transmitter, that which is transmitted, and the one who receives the
transmission. The transmitter is our parents. We are the continuation of our
parents and their ancestors. The object of transmission is our body itself. And
the one who receives the transmission is us. If we continue to meditate on
this, we will see clearly that the transmitter, the object transmitted, and the
receiver are one. All three are present in our body. When we are deeply in
touch with the present moment, we can see that all our ancestors and all future
generations are present in us. Seeing this, we will know what to do and what
not to do--for ourselves, our ancestors, our children, and their children.

At first, when you look at your father, you probably do not see that you and
your father are one. You may be angry at him for many things. But the moment
you understand and love your father, you realize the emptiness of transmission.
You realize that to love yourself is to love your father, and to love your
father is to love yourself. To keep your body and your consciousness healthy is
to do it for your ancestors, your parents, and future generations. You do it
for your society and for everyone, not just yourself. The first thing you have
to bear in mind is that you are not practicing this as a separate entity.
Whatever you ingest, you are doing it for everyone. All of your ancestors and
all future generations are ingesting it with you. That is the true meaning of
the emptiness of the transmission. The Fifth Precept should be practiced in
this spirit.

There are people who drink alcohol and get drunk, who destroy their bodies,
their families, their society. They should refrain from drinking. But you who
have been having a glass of wine every week during the last thirty years
without doing any harm to yourself, why should you stop that? What is the use
of practicing this precept if drinking alcohol does not harm you or other
people? Although you have not harmed yourself during the last thirty years by
drinking just one or two glasses of wine every week, the fact is that it may
have an effect on your children, your grandchildren, and your society. We only
need to look deeply in order to see it. You are practicing not for yourself
alone, but for everyone. Your children might have a propensity for alcoholism
and, seeing you drinking wine every week, one of them may become alcoholic in
the future. If you abandon your two glasses of wine, it is to show your
children, your friends, and your society that your life is not only for
yourself. Your life is for your ancestors, future generations, and also your
society. To stop drinking two glasses of wine every week is a very deep
practice, even if it has not brought you any harm. That is the insight of a
bodhisattva who knows that everything she does is done for all her ancestors
and future generations. The emptiness of transmission is the basis of the Fifth
Precept. The use of drugs by so many young people should also be stopped with
the same kind of insight.

In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they can do
anything they want to it. "We have the right to live our own lives." When you
make such a declaration, the law supports you. This is one of the
manifestations of individualism. But, according to the teaching of emptiness,
your body is not yours. Your body belongs to your ancestors, your parents, and
future generations. It also belongs to society and to all the other living
beings. All of them have come together to bring about the presence of this
body--the trees, clouds, everything. Keeping your body healthy is to express
gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to betray the
future generations. We practice this precept for the whole cosmos, the whole
society. If we are healthy, everyone can benefit from it--not only everyone in
the society of men and women, but everyone in the society of animals, plants,
and minerals. This is a bodhisattva precept. When we practice the Five Precepts
we are already on the path of a bodhisattva.

When we are able to get out of the shell of our small self and see that we are
interrelated to everyone and everything, we see that our every act is linked
with the whole of humankind, the whole cosmos. To keep yourself healthy is to
be kind to your ancestors, your parents, the future generations, and also your
society. Health is not only bodily health, but also mental health. The Fifth
Precept is about health and healing.

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate
good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my
society..." Because you are not doing it only for yourself, to stop drinking
one or two glasses of wine a week is truly an act of a bodhisattva. You do it
everyone. At a reception, when someone offers you a glass of wine, you can
smile and decline, "No, thank you. I do not drink alcohol. I would be grateful
if you would bring me a glass of juice or water." You do it gently, with a
smile. This is very helpful. You set an example for many friends, including
many children who are present. Although that can be done in a very polite,
quiet way, it is truly the act of a bodhisattva, setting an example by your own
life.

Everything a mother eats, drinks, worries about, or fears will have an effect
on the fetus inside her. Even when the child inside is still tiny, everything
is in it. If the young mother is not aware of the nature of interbeing, she may
cause damage to both herself and her child at the same time. If she drinks
alcohol, she will destroy, to some extent, the brain cells in her fetus. Modern
research has proven this.

Mindful consumption is the object of this precept. We are what we consume. If
we look deeply into the items that we consume every day, we will come to know
our own nature very well. We have to eat, drink, consume, but if we do it
unmindfully, we may destroy our bodies and our consciousness, showing
ingratitude toward our ancestors, our parents, and future generations.

When we eat mindfully we are in close touch with the food. The food we eat
comes to us from nature, from living beings, and from the cosmos. To touch it
with our mindfulness is to show our gratitude. Eating in mindfulness can be a
great joy. We pick up our food with our fork, look at it for a second before
putting it into our mouth, and then chew it carefully and mindfully, at least
fifty times. If we practice this, we will be in touch with the entire cosmos.

Being in touch also means knowing whether toxins are present in the food. We
can recognize food as healthy or not thanks to our mindfulness. Before eating,
members of a family can practice breathing in and out and looking at the food
on the table. One person can pronounce the name of each dish, "potatoes,"
"salad," and so on. Calling something by its name helps us touch it deeply and
see its true nature. At the same time, mindfulness reveals to us the presence
or absence of toxins in each dish. Children enjoy doing this if we show them
how. Mindful eating is a good education. If you practice this way for some
time, you will find that you will eat more carefully, and your practice of
mindful eating will be an example for others. It is an art to eat in a way that
brings mindfulness into our life.

We can have a careful diet for our body, and we can also have a careful diet
for our consciousness, our mental health. We need to refrain from ingesting the
kinds of intellectual "food" that bring toxins into our consciousness. Some TV
programs, for example, educate us and help us to lead a healthier life, and we
should make time to watch programs like these. But other programs bring us
toxins, and we need to refrain from watching them. This can be a practice for
everyone in the family.

We know that smoking cigarettes is not good for our health. We have worked hard
to get the manufacturers to print a line on a pack of cigarettes: "WARNING,
SMOKING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH." That is a strong statement, but it
was necessary because advertisements to promote smoking are very convincing.
They give young people the idea that if they don't smoke, they are not really
alive. These advertisements link smoking with nature, springtime, expensive
cars, beautiful men and women, and high standards of living. One could believe
that if you don't smoke or drink alcohol, you will not have any happiness at
all in this life. This kind of advertising is dangerous; it penetrates into our
unconscious. There are so many wonderful and healthy things to eat and drink.
We have to show how this kind of propaganda misleads people.

The warning on cigarette packs is not enough. We have to stand up, write
articles, and do whatever we can to step up campaigns against smoking and
drinking alcohol. We are going in the right direction. At last it is possible
to take an airplane flight without suffering from cigarette smoke. We have to
make more effort in these directions.

I know that drinking wine runs deep in Western culture. In the ceremony of the
Eucharist and the Passover seder, wine is an important element. But I have
spoken to priests and rabbis about this, and they have told me it is possible
to substitute grape juice for the wine. Even if we don't drink at all, we can
still get killed on the streets by a drunk driver. To persuade one person to
refrain from drinking is to make the world safer for us all.

Sometimes we don't need to eat or drink as much as we do, but it has become a
kind of addiction. We feel so lonely. Loneliness is one of the afflictions of
modern life. It is similar to the Third and Fourth Precepts--we feel lonely, so
we engage in conversation, or even in a sexual relationship, hoping that the
feeling of loneliness will go away. Drinking and eating can also be the result
of loneliness. You want to drink or overeat in order to forget your loneliness,
but what you eat may bring toxins into your body. When you are lonely, you open
the refrigerator, watch TV, read magazines or novels, or pick up the telephone
to talk. But unmindful consumption always makes things worse.

There may be a lot of violence, hatred, and fear in a film. If we spend one
hour looking at that film, we will water the seeds of violence, hatred, and
fear in us. We do that, and we let our children do that, too. Therefore we
should have a family meeting to discuss an intelligent policy concerning
television watching. We may have to label our TV sets the same way we have
labelled cigarettes: "WARNING: WATCHING TELEVISION CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR
HEALTH." That is the truth. Some children have joined gangs, and many more are
very violent, partly because they have seen a lot of violence on television. We
must have an intelligent policy concerning the use of television in our family.

We should arrange our schedules so that our family has time to benefit from the
many healthy and beautiful programs on TV. We do not have to destroy our
television set; we only have to use it with wisdom and mindfulness. This can be
discussed among the family and the community. There are a number of things we
can do, such as asking the TV stations to establish healthier programming, or
suggesting to manufacturers to offer television sets that receive only stations
that broadcast healthy, educational programs, like PBS. During the war in
Vietnam, the American army dropped hundreds of thousands of radio sets in the
jungles that could receive only one station, the one that made propaganda for
the anticommunist side. This is not psychological warfare, but I think many
families would welcome a TV set that would allow us to see only healthy
programs. I hope you will write to TV manufacturers and TV stations to express
your ideas about this.

We need to be protected because the toxins are overwhelming. They are
destroying our society, our families, and ourselves. We have to use everything
in our power to protect ourselves. Discussions on this subject will bring about
important ideas, such as to how to protect ourselves from destructive
television broadcasts. We also have to discuss in our families and communities
which magazines that we and our children enjoy reading, and we should boycott
those magazines that spill toxins into our society. Not only should we refrain
from reading them, but we should also make an effort to warn people of the
danger of reading and consuming these kinds of products. The same is true of
books and conversations.

Because we are lonely, we want to have conversations, but our conversations can
also bring about a lot of toxins. From time to time, after speaking with
someone, we feel paralyzed by what we have just heard. Mindfulness will allow
us to stop having the kinds of conversations that bring us more toxins.

Psychotherapists are those who listen deeply to the sufferings of their
clients. If they do not know how to practice to neutralize and transform the
pain and sorrow in themselves, they will not be able to remain fresh and
healthy in order to sustain themselves for a long time.

The exercise I propose has three points: First, look deeply into your body and
your consciousness and identify the kinds of toxins that are already in you. We
each have to be our own doctor not only for our bodies, but also for our minds.
After we identify these toxins, we can try to expel them. One way is to drink a
lot of water. Another is to practice massage, to encourage the blood to come to
the spot where the toxins are, so the blood can wash them away. A third is to
breathe deeply air that is fresh and clean. This brings more oxygen into the
blood and helps it expel the toxins in our bodies. There are mechanisms in our
bodies that try to neutralize and expel these substances, but our bodies may be
too weak to do the job by themselves. While doing these things, we have to stop
ingesting more toxins.

At the same time, we look into our consciousness to see what kinds of toxins
are already in there. We have a lot of anger, despair, fear, hatred, craving,
and jealousy--all these things were described by the Buddha as poisons. The
Buddha spoke of the three basic poisons as anger, hatred, and delusion. There
are many more than that, and we have to recognize their presence in us. Our
happiness depends on our ability to transform them. We have not practiced, and
so we have been carried away by our unmindful life-styles. The quality of our
life depends very much on the amount of peace and joy that can be found in our
bodies and consciousness. If there are too many poisons in our bodies and
consciousness, the peace and joy in us will not be strong enough to make us
happy. So the first step is to identify and recognize the poisons that are
already in us.

The second step of the practice is to be mindful of what we are ingesting into
our bodies and consciousness. What kind of toxins am I putting into my body
today? What films am I watching today? What book am I reading? What magazine am
I looking at? What kind of conversations am I having? Try to recognize the
toxins.

The third part of the practice is to prescribe for yourself a kind of diet.
Aware of the fact that there are this many toxins in my body and consciousness,
aware of the fact that I am ingesting this and that toxin into my body and
consciousness every day, making myself sick and causing suffering to my beloved
ones, I am determined to prescribe for myself a proper diet. I vow to ingest
only items that preserve well-being, peace, and joy in my body and my
consciousness. I am determined not to ingest more toxins into my body and
consciousness.

Therefore, I will refrain from ingesting into my body and consciousness these
things, and I will make a list of them. We know that there are many items that
are nutritious, healthy, and delightful that we can consume every day. When we
refrain from drinking alcohol, there are so many delicious and wholesome
alternatives: fruit juices, teas, mineral waters. We don't have to deprive
ourselves of the joys of living, not at all. There are many beautiful,
informative, and entertaining programs on television. There are many excellent
books and magazines to read. There are many wonderful people and many healthy
subjects to talk about. By vowing to consume only items that preserve our
well-being, peace, and joy, and the well-being, peace, and joy of our family
and society, we need not deprive ourselves of the joys of living. Practicing
this third exercise brings us deep peace and joy.

Practicing a diet is the essence of this precept. Wars and bombs are the
products of our consciousnessindividually and collectively. Our
collective consciousness has so much violence, fear, craving, and hatred in it,
it can manifest in wars and bombs. The bombs are the product of our fear.
Because others have powerful bombs, we try to make bombs even more powerful.
Then the other nations hear that we have powerful bombs, and they try to make
even more powerful bombs. Removing the bombs is not enough. Even if we could
transport all the bombs to a distant planet, we would still not be safe,
because the roots of the wars and the bombs are still intact in our collective
consciousness. Transforming the toxins in our collective consciousness is the
true way to uproot war.

When we saw the video of Rodney King being beaten on the streets of Los
Angeles, we did not understand why the five policemen had to beat a defenseless
person like that again and again. We saw the violence, hatred, and fear in the
policemen. But it is not the problem of the five policemen alone. Their act was
the manifestation of our collective consciousness. They are not the only ones
who are violent and full of hatred and fear. Most of us are like that. There is
so much violence in all big cities, not only Los Angeles, but also San
Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Tokyo, Paris, and elsewhere.
Every morning, when going to work, policemen say, "I have to be careful or I
may be killed. I will be unable to return to my family." A policeman practices
fear every day, and because of that, he may dothings that are quite
unwise. Sometimes there is no real danger, but because he suspects he may be
shot, he takes his gun and shoots first. He may shoot a child playing with a
toy gun. One week before Rodney King was beaten, a policewoman in Los Angeles
was shot in the face and killed. It is natural that the police in the area
became angry when they heard this, and they all went to the funeral to
demonstrate their anger and hatred to society and to the administration for not
providing them with enough safety. The government is not safe
either--presidents and prime ministers get assassinated. Because society is
like this, policemen and policewomen are like that. "This is, because that is.
This is like this, because that is like that." A violent society creates
violent policemen. A fearful society creates fearful policemen. Putting the
policemen in jail does not solve the problem. We have to change the society
from its roots, which is our collective consciousness, where the root-energies
of fear, anger, greed, and hatred lie.

We cannot abolish war with angry demonstrations. We have to practice a diet for
ourselves, our families, and our society. We have to do it with everyone else.
In order to have healthy TV programs, we have to work with artists, writers,
filmmakers, lawyers, and legislators. We have to step up the struggle.
Meditation should not be a drug to make us oblivious to our real problems. It
should produce awareness in us, and also in our families and in our society.
Enlightenment has to be collective for us to achieve results. We have to stop
the kinds of consuming that poison our collective consciousness.

I do not see any other way than the practice of these bodhisattva precepts. We
have to practice them as a society in order to produce the dramatic changes we
need. To practice as a society will be possible only if each of us vows to
practice as a bodhisattva. The problem is great. It concerns our survival and
the survival of our species and our planet. It is not a matter of enjoying one
glass of wine. If you stop drinking your glass of wine, you do it for the whole
society. We know that the Fifth Precept is exactly like the first one. When you
practice non-killing and you know how to protect the lives of even small
animals, you realize that eating less meat has do with the practice of the
precept. If you are not able to entirely stop eating meat, at least make an
effort to reduce eating meat. If you reduce eating meat and drinking alcohol by
fifty percent, you will already be performing a miracle; that alone can solve
the problem of hunger in the Third World. Practicing the precepts is to make
progress every day. That is why during the precept recitation ceremony, we
always answer the question of whether we have made an effort to study and
practice the precept by deep breathing. That is the best answer. Deep breathing
means that I have made some effort, but I can do better.

The Fifth Precept can be like that, too. If you are unable to completely stop
drinking, then stop four-fifths, or three-fourths. The difference between the
First and the Fifth Precept is that alcohol is not the same as meat. Alcohol is
addictive. One drop brings about another. That is why you are encouraged to
stop even one glass of wine. One glass can bring about a second glass. Although
the spirit is the same as the First Precept, you are strongly recommended not
to take the first glass of wine. When you see that we are in great danger,
refraining from the first glass of wine is a manifestation of your
enlightenment. You do it for all of us. We have to set an example for our
children and our friends. On French television they say, "One glass is all
right, but three glasses will bring about destruction." (Un verre ça va;
trois verres bonjour les dégâts.)They do not say that the
first glass brings about the second, and the second brings about the third.
They don't say that, because they belong to a civilization of wine. Here in
Plum Village, in the Bordeaux region of France, we are surrounded by wine. Many
of our neighbors are surprised that we don't profit from being in this area,
but we are a pocket of resistance. Please help us.

When I was a novice, I learned that from time to time we had to use alcohol in
preparing medicines. There are many kinds of roots and herbs that have to be
macerated in alcohol to have an effect. In these instances, alcohol is allowed.
When the herbs have been prepared, we put the mixture in a pot and boil them.
Then they no longer have an intoxicating effect. If you use some alcohol in
cooking, the result may be the same. After the food is cooked, the alcohol in
it will not have an intoxicating nature. We should not be narrow-minded about
this.

No one can practice the precepts perfectly, including the Buddha. The
vegetarian dishes that were offered to him were not entirely vegetarian. Boiled
vegetables contain dead bacteria. We cannot practice the First Precept or any
of the precepts perfectly. But because of the real danger in our
society--alcoholism has destroyed so many families and has brought about much
unhappiness--we have to do something. We have to live in a way that will
eradicate that kind of damage. That is why even if you can be very healthy with
one glass of wine every week, I still urge you with all my strength to abandon
that glass of wine.

I would also like to say something about not using drugs. As alcohol has been
the plague of one generation, drugs are the plague of another. One young girl
in Australia told me that she did not know anyone in her age group who does not
take drugs of one kind or another. Often young people who have taken drugs come
to meditation centers to deal with the problem of facing life as it is. They
are often talented and sensitive people--painters, poets and writers--and by
becoming addicted to drugs they have, to a small or large extent, destroyed
some brain cells. It means that they now have little stability or staying
power, and are prone to sleeplessness and nightmares. We do what we can to
encourage them to stay for a course of training in the meditation center, but
because they are easily disillusioned, they tend to leave when things become
difficult. Those who have been addicted to drugs need discipline. I am not sure
that a meditation center like Plum Village is the best place to cure victims of
drug addiction. I think that experts and specialists in this field are better
equipped than we are. A meditation center should be able to receive educators
and specialists in drug addiction as well as the victims of drug addiction for
short courses in meditation to make its resources available where they are
truly needed.

The practice that we offer is that of the Fifth Precept, to prevent someone
from becoming involved with drugs in the first place. Parents especially need
to know what spiritual food to give their children. So often, children feel
spiritually starved by the wholly materialistic outlook of their parents. The
parents are unable to transmit to the children the values of their spiritual
heritage, and so the children try to find fulfillment in drugs. Drugs seem to
be the only solution when teachers and parents are spiritually barren. Young
people need to touch the feeling of deep-seated well-being within themselves
without having to take drugs, and it is the task of educators to help them find
spiritual nourishment and well-being. But if educators have not yet discovered
for themselves a source of spiritual nourishment, how can they demonstrate to
young people how that nourishment may be found?

The Fifth Precept tells us to find wholesome, spiritual nourishment, not only
for ourselves but also for our children and future generations. Wholesome,
spiritual nourishment can be found in the moon, the spring blossoms, or the
eyes of a child. The most basic meditation practices of becoming aware of our
bodies, our minds, and our world can lead us into a far more rich and
fulfilling state than drugs could ever do. We can celebrate the joys that are
available in the simplest pleasures.

The use of alcohol and drugs is causing great damage to our societies and
families. Governments work hard to stop the traffic of drugs. They use
airplanes, guns, and armies to do so. Most people know how destructive the use
of drugs is but they cannot resist, because there is so much pain and
loneliness inside them, and the use of alcohol and drugs helps them to forget
for a while their deep malaise. Once people get addicted to alcohol and drugs,
they might do anything to get the drugs they need--lie, steal, rob, or even
kill. To stop the drug traffic is not the best way to prevent people from using
drugs. The best way is to practice the Fifth Precept and to help others
practice.

Consuming mindfully is the intelligent way to stop ingesting toxins into our
consciousness and prevent the malaise from becoming overwhelming. Learning the
art of touching and ingesting refreshing, nourishing, and healing elements is
the way to restore our balance and transform the pain and loneliness that are
already in us. To do this, we have to practice together. The practice of
mindful consuming should become a national policy. It should be considered true
peace education. Parents, teachers, educators, physicians, therapists, lawyers,
novelists, reporters, filmmakers, economists, and legislators have to practice
together. There must be ways of organizing this kind of practice.

The practice of mindfulness helps us be aware of what is going on. Once we are
able to see deeply the suffering and the roots of the suffering, we will be
motivated to act, to practice. The energy we need is not fear or anger; it is
the energy of understanding and compassion. There is no need to blame or
condemn. Those who are destroying themselves, their families, and their society
by intoxicating themselves are not doing it intentionally. Their pain and
loneliness are overwhelming, and they want to escape. They need to be helped,
not punished. Only understanding and compassion on a collective level can
liberate us. The practice of the Five Wonderful Precepts is the practice of
mindfulness and compassion. For a future to be possible for our children and
their children, we have to practice.

THICH NHAT HANH is a Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, scholar, and
poet. He is the founder of the Van Hanh Buddhist University in
Saigon, has taught at Columbia University and the Sorbonne, and now
lives in southern France, where he gardens, works to help those in
need, and travels internationally teaching ``the art of mindful
living.'' Martin Luther King, Jr., nominated him for the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1967, saying, ``I do not personally know of anyone more
worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle monk from Vietnam.''

Reproduced from For a Future to Be Possible: Commentaries on the Five
Wonderful Precepts (1993) by Thich Nhat Hanh. Copyright 1993.
Reprinted with permission of Parallax Press, PO Box
7355, Berkeley, CA 94707.